1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transmitting/receiving system capable of transmitting/receiving required data by connecting facsimile machines and other transmitting/receiving apparatuses thereto via a network or telephone line and more specifically to a transmitting/receiving system provided with a backup function for backing up the required data when the power source is shut down.
2. Description of Prior Art
In recent years, a transmitting/receiving apparatus such as a facsimile machine, systematized so that required data is received from or transmitted to the other party has come to be provided with a non-volatile memory for holding the transmitting/receiving data in general in the multiplication and advancement of its functions.
As a memory for storing the receiving data, however, is employed a volatile memory in which received data is not preserved when the power source is shut down, except some high-class and high-price apparatuses. For this reason, the stored transmitting/receiving data will be lost by sudden shut-down of the electric source. Therefore, as means for preserving the data in the volatile memory, a spare backup power source for temporarily supplying power is provided beside the main power source to supply power from the backup power source when the power source is shut down.
The spare backup power source operates effectively when the power source is shut down temporarily by an operator's careless operation. However, in case when the power source is shut down for a long period of time due to a power failure for example, the stored data is lost at the moment of time when no power can be supplied due to the time limit of the backup power source.
Some apparatuses such as conventional personal computers are constructed so as to hold the data stored in the volatile memory by transferring to a non-volatile memory such as an internal fixed magnetic disk when the power source is switched to the backup power source by detecting a power failure.
A multi-function apparatus having functions as a facsimile, a copier, a printer and a scanner is provided with an image information memory for transmitting/receiving images using the volatile memory and having a capacity of 2M bytes, i.e., image data of 120 sheets in terms of A4 size paper. However, the capacity of a system memory for storing registration data and management data and that of a program memory for storing programs executed by a CPU, i.e., a transmission/receiving controller, using the non-volatile memory is 64 K bytes, respectively (capable of storing about four sheets of image data in terms of A4 size paper). Therefore, it is unable to transfer and store the transmitting/receiving data stored in the volatile memory to the non-volatile memory provided in advance in the apparatus.
Accordingly, it is necessary to provide separately a non-volatile memory such as a fixed magnetic disk for saving the transmitting/receiving data in order to preserve the transmitting/receiving data stored in the volatile memory within the apparatus. Since it is necessary to provide the non-volatile memory having a capacity equal to or greater than that of the transmitting/receiving data storage memory separately, its cost becomes high naturally. Still more, since that memory is mainly used only during a power failure or the like, its use frequency is low and is very wasteful.
Then, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 5-95444 (1993) describes a technology which allows an operator to transfer data stored in a volatile memory of a transmitting/receiving apparatus A to another transmitting/receiving apparatus B prior to shutting down a power source of the transmitting/receiving apparatus A temporarily to repair a failure of a printer part or the like in the transmitting/receiving apparatus including the above-mentioned multi-function apparatus. It allows the transmitting/receiving data to be transferred and stored in the other transmitting/receiving apparatus when the printer or the like is in trouble. Therefore, it becomes possible to evacuate and to back up the required data in the other transmitting/receiving apparatus.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 5-241978 (1993) discloses a technology of transferring and storing data stored in a microcomputer whose power source is not backed up to a microcomputer whose power source is backed up when the power source is shut down in an electronic apparatus provided with a plurality of microcomputers. It then allows the required data to be backed up by evacuating to the other microcomputer when the power source is shut down.
However, the destination to which the data stored in the apparatus whose power source is shut down or the data stored in the microcomputer whose power source is not backed up is transferred is fixed in the technologies described in the above-mentioned two publications. Accordingly, they are inconvenient because the data cannot be transferred to any apparatus or microcomputer arbitrarily.